"A descendant of Hitler's father, reportedly an unidentified elderly woman living in Lower Austria, 'has relinquished her rights and has had it removed,' said Kurt Pittertschatscher, pastor of Leonding near the northern city of Linz.

"'The upkeep of the grave was becoming increasingly difficult as the years went by, and the grave ... kept being misused for gatherings of sympathisers,' he said.

"But the pastor said that the remains of Hitler's customs official father Alois, who died in 1903, and his mother Klara, who passed away four years later, had not been exhumed.

"The house where the family lived is still standing."

The AP reports all that's left at the site is a "white gravel square and a tree."